Homedale Taste of STEMAZing and #STEMontheCheap
Resources used to engage 7th grade students and for a half day professional development workshop at Homedale Middle School.
$1 Laser Pointer Macro Lens Hack (or just 10 cents)
Learn how to take apart a $1 keychain laser pointer from Family Dollar and turn it into a macro lens for either a cell phone or tablet. It basically turns your device into a low-powered ...
Adaptations and Allele Theory Cube
An extension of Theory Cube lesson as applied to adaptations and alleles in biology ...
Binary #MicDropMath Patterns
The Binary #MicDropMath Patterns lesson can be used to help students recognize patterns, understand how to make multiple hypotheses in science and math, and understand the importance of basing claims on more data rather than ...
Crosscut Symbols
The Crosscut Symbols below are from Peter A’Hearn. These can be found at http://crosscutsymbols.weebly.com/ with lots of supporting information including critical questions, questions that connect to science and engineering practices, and more for each concept ...
Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices
If we could recommend only one book to help with implementation of the new science standards, this would be it! When it’s time for a game change, you need a guide to the new rules. Helping ...
Hypothesis Cubes – Best Nature of Science Lesson of ALL TIME!
Hypothesis cubes is the BEST nature of science lesson of all time. Engage students to use evidence to support their claims and then demonstrate the way science works by leaving the "answer" unsettled in the ...
I am Albert Einstein by Brad Meltzer (author) and Christopher Eliopoulos (illustrator)
Even when he was a kid, Albert Einstein did things his own way. He thought in pictures instead of words, and his special way of thinking helped him understand big ideas like the structure of ...
Next Generation Science Storylines
The Next Generation Science Storylines project is dedicated to providing tools that support teachers in developing, adapting, and teaching with strongly aligned NGSS materials in classrooms around the country. We like their Science and Engineering ...
NGSS Practices Web from NextGenStorylines
The scientific method is out! It is all about the web! ...
Pepper’s Pyramid Projector
Turn your cell phone or tablet into a 3D hologram-like projector using plastic you would normally recycle. Reuse flat clear plastic to give this old physics trick a high tech twist. Less ecologically friendly, but ...
Physics Ring and Chain Trick
NOT MAGIC! Can you master the physics ring and chain trick? Check out the document below the video for directions and info about where to get your own rings and chains by the 100. Don't ...
Prompts for Integrating Crosscutting Concepts Into Assessment and Instruction
Prompts for both formative and summative assessment for each of the crosscutting concepts. Great for thinking about the questions you ask students as they are doing science and engineering projects. STEM Tool #41 from STEM ...
Questions that Blend CCCs and SEPs
These questions merge ideas from the crosscutting concepts and the science and engineering practices ...
R.A.F.T. Resource Area for Teaching
Resource Area for Teaching has loads of Idea Sheets which you can search through for exceptional, #STEMontheCheap ideas like Design Inspirations ...
Screaming Balloon
Engage young children with sound explorations using balloons with various things put inside them which you then roll around the inside of the balloon. The ECE Notice and Wonder Journal is a great resource to ...
Star Wars Sound Machine
Adding a Styrofoam cup as a sounding board to a metal Slinky turns it into a Star Wars sound machine! ...
STEM Teaching Tools
Practice briefs and tools which will help any educator focused on shifting their science instruction toward 3-dimensional instruction. These very short pieces highlight ways of working on specific issues that come up during STEM teaching ...
STEMAZing Journal Hack
Make graph paper STEMAZing journals that require no staples or tape using an old bookbinding trick ...
Straw Oboe
Using two different diameter straws, create an oboe with just a simple cut to create a reed and a little bit of practice ...
Toys From Trash
#STEMontheCheap at its best! Toys from Trash is an incredible collection of projects made with inexpensive materials. You will have to consider the minds-on ways you will use these projects to engage students but most ...
Two Looper Airplanes
The two looper airplane is a great model for having students engineer other designs. Fantastic to iterate through the engineering design process multiple times because it only takes straws, tape, and index cards to let ...
Wack-a-Pack Science – PQRST
Our favorite phenomenon - Wack-a-Packs from Dollar Tree! These can generally be found for every holiday and also in the birthday section. Use this phenomenon to drive questions for lots of different avenues of exploration ...